MadGoat

Do you want to prevent people like me or that other shady looking guy from looking at and changing certain aspects of your Facebook profile?

Facebook recently added some security features that allow us to access a secured connection to Facebook thus, making it harder for hackers to get to your information.

Follow these steps to lock down Facebook from over the air eavesdroppers.

Step 1:

In the upper right hand of your Facebook page, click Account then click Account Settings (I hope you enjoy my silly profile picture)

Since I started this, I have been asked a few times as to what the plugin was called that I mention on TV. Well, lets start off with my browser of choice. Firefox would be my first choice for surfing the internet for the simple reason that it has the most robust add-on system out there. But even with the thousands of add-ons available, I am always quick to point out one right away.

Force-TLS

This simple add-on takes a few seconds to install and does a fantastic job at preventing people from snooping on you. Transport Layer Security (TLS) is a protocol or method or securing communication over the internet.

The simple back story is that it was invented by Netscape in the 1990′s as a way to encrypt information over the ever growing internet.

What Force-TLS does is it attempts to connect to a secure version of the site you are visiting by going to the HTTPS version of the site. If it can, then it will remember that and always connect to the site securely. If it cannot connect securely it will serve up a regular unsecured HTTP page.

Force-TLS is free as is Firefox. I would recommend getting them if you don’t already use them.

You use Internet Explorer, either by choice or because it’s easier for work relate purposes.

You also want to browse safely while you use Internet Explorer. While Internet Explorer doesn’t have the add-on features that the other browsers do, I’ll try and outline some of the easier and proven options that are available to you, wether you use Internet Explorer or any browser.

Is your password on facebook the same as your Gmail password or your Hotmail password?

Chances are, yes. Admittedly as our human nature tells us to do, we like to take the path of least resistance. Choosing a common password that you use on every website is akin to taking the nicely paved bike path instead of the dirt path. Thinking of a new password for every site can be near impossible, unless you have an infallible photographic memory.

Personally I like to manage my passwords, software license keys and other secret information using a simple piece of software called 1Password ($30USD Windows , $40 Mac OS, and various prices for mobile devices. Free trials are available at the site). Think of it as safe for all your sticky notes that you write your passwords on. It’s good to note that 1Password uses 128-bit encryption that will safely lock away your passwords. It’s Windows, Mac, iOS, Android compatible so that you can carry your passwords with you where ever you are.

1Password is perfect when creating a new account, as it can generate and save a new, very random passwords and safely lock them away in the “safe”. All you have to remember is the master password that you set for 1Password. Another benefit of this program is that you can use cloud storage to keep you passwords(tightly locked away) on an online storage space from a free service from DropBox(referral). This online storage allows you to seamlessly synchronize your secured password between your computers, tablets and mobile smart phones.

Of course even application has its cons and I’m really trying hard to find some. I guess the lack of integration into Google Chrome is the smallest and only one I can think of right now.

I know that it may be hard to justify spending the money, but from a security point of view, sometimes you have to spend money in order to not lose money. Some of the products I use cost money in order to help me keep my information secure. There may be a free or open source product comparable to the software I mention, but in my experience I have not come across a free application that does all I need with little to no hassle. I’m thinking of people that don’t want to spend an hour configuring something when I’m considering software to recommend to my readers.

I would recommend that you at least give a free trial run of 1Password before ruling it out completely.

*Full disclosure I am not associated, paid by or asked to promote the product(s) mentioned in this article, unless otherwise stated. Products that I use are from personal experience and preferences.

Recently I was contacted to do a bit on ‘A’ Morning in Ottawa. They filmed me doing what I do in a local coffee shop and this morning I went on live TV for a quick follow up.

This is the clip filmed last week. Unfortunately the live bit wasn’t included.

Today marks the day that I went on TV(denoted by the silly picture on the left). It seemed way to brief, I could have gone on for hours talking about the subject matter. That brings me to the point of this site. MadGoat.ca was created for the purpose to create a professional site in which I could share my ideas about the industry and communicate with other professionals.

I’m reviving this site with the intent to help you. I’ll work with the community to raise awareness about internet security, industry news and general computer technology advice.

As always, I am available to talk one on one by using the Contact Page. I’m also available for professional contracting.

Wi-Fi hotspots are simply not secure. They are the equivalent to you yelling everything you to everyone in the cafe. You might as well dictate the email you’re reading from you spouse to your neighbour.

So what can you do to prevent “en passant” eaves dropping? I’ll give you a few steps that can help you keep your information private.

Use VPN to Encrypt the Network Traffic

Use a VPN (Virtual Private Connection) to your office, home or third party VPN provider if possible when you are connecting to public Wi-Fi. VPN will encrypt the network traffic both ways as it travels over the air.

Use HTTPS to connect to web sites if VPN isn’t available

Firefox Secure connection example

If you don’t have access to a VPN, make sure that any sites you log into, such as hotmail, yahoo, twitter use a secure connection.

This type of connection will ensure that you have encrypted traffic from the server that is nearly for the average hacker impossible to snoop on.

Don’t use public computers

Public computers from an internet cafe are at the highest risk for having viruses, key loggers(password sniffers) and an array of tools onboard to grab your information. I would absolutely avoid these at all cost.

Purchase a mobile wireless modem

Rogers, Bell, Telus all have wireless modems that you can buy and pay a monthly fee to use. These devices typically plug into your USB port and connect to the internet using a cellular connection. These are encrypted devices and are much harder to eaves drop on.

In Conclusion

Just using these 4 steps is a good start. They are, of course, not the end all solution to all wireless security, but they are a step in the right direction. Sometimes the solutions will incur some costs, but a few dollars spent securing your information may save you a lot of money down the road if someone had access to your credit card information.

HDCP MASTER KEY (MIRROR THIS TEXT!)

This is a forty times forty element matrix of fifty-six bit
hexadecimal numbers.

To generate a sink key, do the same, but with the transposed
matrix.